BANGOR DAILY NEWS • June 1, 2021
A proposal that would ask Maine voters to create a consumer-owned utility that would replace the state’s two major power companies advanced easily in the Legislature’s energy committee on Tuesday, setting up what is likely to be a heavily lobbied floor fight. Lawmakers on the panel voted 9-2 in favor of an amended version of a bill that would create the nonprofit Pine Tree Power Co. through the referendum process. It would be governed by a board of directors voted on by Mainers and would require the company to buy out Central Maine Power and Versant Power, the state’s two largest electricity providers, through a bond.